Small Things That are Big

I’ve met a lot of new people lately. Visited a lot of new places. Started new traditions. Am learning new routines. A whole lot of new, new, new. And for the most part, it’s all really good stuff. Regardless of how comfortable we are in our lives, after a while it becomes necessary to break the pattern by turning your world upside down.

And I’m becoming an expert at this upside-down world thing.

But there comes a point when you have to put a limit on how much new you can handle. How many responsibilities, how many new friends, how much change. Because as fantastic as it is—theoretically—for your life, emotionally, people are still human and human beings have limits to how much they can take.

A thing that seems small and mostly insignificant to one person might be just the absolute last thing another can handle. The thing that sends them over the edge of tolerance or withstanding or whatever.

I am finding that this is the case for me and my family. And we’ve hit upon a semi-solution. There are a lot of things we have to continue to do, big things that can’t really be changed or cut out of our daily lives. But there are other things for which we can say no. Things that can be removed from the endless load of new that keeps being piled upon us, and that will lighten our burden just slightly enough that we can carry it another day. Or week. Or whatever.

There comes a point when we have to remember that the pyramids were built brick by brick. The strongest foundations, the lasting ones, have to be created over time.

One of these days we’ll be less new. Less overwhelmed. And then we’ll be able to take on more of the small stuff. Until then, those things will just have to wait for when we’re stronger.

When’s the last time you evaluated your priorities and cut out some of the small things that weighed you down?